With New Dell Campaign, Santa's List Meets Web 2.0

Dell is launching a holiday Web site that allows would-be Dell owners to create humorous and personalized video e-mails, featuring celebrities, urging friends and family to help fulfill the dream during the holidays.

Visitors to YoursIsHere.com can marshal celebrities with various selling styles to press mail recipients to either buy the sender a Dell or contribute money to the cause. The site will also offer a method for creating a “virtual piggy bank,” linked to a PayPal account, which can be used by those who want to donate money toward the new computer. The piggy bank can be published on Facebook and MySpace pages.

The campaign, created by Mother in New York, will also include a TV spot, online banners, virals and e-mail blasts. The YoursIsHere.com site was made by Poke.

“It’s principally a viral marketing campaign around the idea of getting what you really want for the holidays,” said Dell Consumer Group Representative Jay Pinkert. He and Dell Global Director of Marketing Communications David Clifton said the “viral” part of the campaign will come into play when those who receive the e-mails also give it a try.

“The idea is if you send it to 20 friends and they chip-in and contribute to your computer, we want them to say, `Well, if I’m giving him 20 bucks, how about him giving me 20 bucks?” said Clifton. “As they receive it, and think it’s cool, they’re going to send it right back around.”

Dell believes the cool factor will be significantly improved by the humorous use of celebrities. The company has hired Burt Reynolds, Chuck Liddell, Brooke Burke, Estelle Harris, Ice T and Vivica Fox to record the clips. Each will use a selling style that exaggerates their persona: Liddell will use a hard sell approach, Burke will use a soft sell, Harris will use guilt, Ice T’s pitch will be “silky,” Fox will be “sassy” and Reynolds will convey over-the-top Hollywood “star power.”

Visitors to the site will first be prompted to select the model they like. They then will choose a celebrity/sales pitch and create a list of recipients to receive the campy solicitations.

Clifton said the TV spots will feature Reynolds. There also will be placements on the Jumbotron in Times Square, Internet video spots and other elements that are part of what Dell called a series of “unprecedented media buys by Dell.”